I started saving pictures of this buck in the summer of 2013 when he was big enough that I started paying attention to him. Maybe he was 3 or 4 yrs old that year. He was a buck that makes you say, "wow if he could make it a couple more year's, he could be a monster." Those were my thoughts exactly, at that time. It'd be a rare exception if he survived gun season in these parts...but hey you never know, he could get lucky!

[img]http://www.hollygarrett.com/Ten130805b[/img]

We never saw him again that 2013 season after early September.

But then in the spring I found one of his sheds, confirming that he'd made it!

That summer and fall of 2014, we got more pictures of the buck.

His rack and body had grown. Not as much as I thought he might though.

But still, he looked like a real nice buck.

I would have shot him, but I never saw this buck during hunting seasons.

I tagged out on another buck on Nov 11th that year.

Could this one make it another year?

[img]http://www.hollygarrett.com/Ten141009[/img]

We got no wintertime trail cam pictures of the buck, so it was hard to know if he'd made it.

But in early March I found one of his sheds. It was dropped in the same bedding area where he'd shed last year.

Now I was drooling...thinking about how big he'd surely be that coming fall!

And yes indeed, the trail cams that summer 2015 showed he was still around. But as best I could tell, it didn't look like his rack had gained an inch.

Still a real nice buck, that I'd be glad to shoot if given a chance.

That fall I was very focused on killing another particular buck. But in late November I learned that buck had been taken by another hunter.

So in the late season, I was back to bow-hunting the old familiar 10-pointer.

I saw him on 3 or 4 occasions on a feeding pattern. But he was pretty cautious, and I never had him closer than 90 yards.

Once again nobody got him that year. And that winter, I found one of his sheds, again dropped in his favorite bedding area.

So in 2016, this year, I figured he should be a REAL monster.

But when he started showing up on trail cams in mid-summer, he was still nice, but no, he was just about exactly the same rack size as last year.

I wondered if his rack had stalled out due to being really old, or just genetically he was never going to be any bigger.

In any case, he seemed like the perfect buck to try and take once the hunting season rolled around!

This season I had more encounters with this buck than ever before.

And on the 6th such encounter, which happened last night, I finally got lucky and made it count.

He followed a doe into my set-up and I was able to put an arrow through his vitals. He made it about 50 yards and piled up.

Check out those hocks....this dude was really rutting!

I may send in his incisor teeth to find out his true age.

I'm really curious about this dude!

This is an awesome thread! Huge congratulations!!!!

what a buck!!

Never seen tarsals like those! Wow.

That is a toad of a deer stick and to get him with a bow is awesome!!! Hats off to you.

Parker could not have said it any better.....+1 and congrats stick!!!!

Nice deer.....congrats ...... any score on him yet ?? Weight ?

Awesome story, history, and execution!
Congratulations Greg, on an old brute of a buck!!

Very very cool story with pics!
Congrats on closing the book. An excellent deer, and I'm sure a much nicer experience.

Congrats, Greg! Great read!

Great buck and photos. Congratulations!

Jeff- Green score about 150 gross and 147-4/8 net. Didn't scale him but probably 200-ish dressed. This late in the rut, you could tell he'd lost a whole lot of weight. Earlier in the season his gut was very plump, but now as the pic shows, his stomach is really drawn-in. No doubt from several weeks of hardly eating and running all day and night!

Thanks for the comments guys. I was thrilled to finally luck out and get him.

Awesome story..CONGRATS on a dandy!!

Cool. Great deer and story.

congrats,great buck

Great Deer and pics.... Thanks for posting

Great story!! Congrats that is a dandy!!

Congrats and amazing you found the sheds every year !!

Congrats Greg! Great buck, great shot, great history!

Way to go Stick, another great buck and awesome story/pics/sheds. Thanks for sharing and congrats!

Nice and way to put a nice story with pictures on here looks good congrats on a great buck and one you have been watching very neat

Great old buck and history!

Great buck and story, congrats!

Freaking awesome!! Congrats big time!

That is a very nice deer Sticksender. When you have a history with one like that, score doesn't matter!!!!! Congratulations!!!

This might qualify as the best post in all of hunting forums. It's great man! Congratulations.

Nice buck, stick! Always neat to have history. Glad you were blessed to catch up with him him this year, congrats! Nice bow too!

Thanks for the comments guys. Even a blind squirrel stumbles into a hickory nut every once in a while!